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June 27, 2012

Guest Post: Four Saints Brewing Company

Today on the site we've got something a bit different. A friend of Beertography, Joel McClosky is in the process of starting up a new brewery called Four Saints Brewing Company in Asheboro, NC. Joel and his co-founder Andrew have been hard at work getting this thing off the ground for a long time and now find themselves in the final stretch.

Since Joel is a friend of the site, an avid beertographer and a Beer It Forward participant, I wanted to give him an opportunity to introduce his new brewery to you here. And if you felt like it, you could donate to his Kickstarter campaign to help see his dreams come to fruition.

Cheers to Joel and Andrew and I can't wait to have a Four Saints beer!

“I’m too young to die. I
haven’t lived yet; I haven’t seen Italy or Spain.”

~ A recent quote from a conversation

Ever walk into a pub, bottle shop, or brewery and
have a similar thought?

A thought that we beer fans,
connoisseurs, and snobs will never
experience all of it?

Those beers that are only available in small
markets, but end up at the top of every
Best Beer list, tease us constantly.
Or, those one day events that most of us cannot drop a few hundred bucks
on to get to. Don’t forget about
the breweries that offer insane in-house offerings that are bragged about via
Facebook and Twitter. Aye, we are
all too young to die.

As the craft beer world continues to expand, the
Beer Bucket List grows lengthier and more daunting. A small pang of anxiety attacks as we
enter the dens of opportunity, hoping and praying to choose wisely.

When I think of great beer, there are two things
that I might consider to be of greater importance.

The people I’m
with and the surrounding community.

I say this with full conviction - no beer has ever
changed my life. The conversation
or experience had with others, possibly with a beer, has changed me. So, I find it necessary to remind
myself of a few things to keep me grounded and aware.

It is the people, not the place or the beer.

I’ve had some great beer in my life so far. I’ve also made some great beer as a part
of Four Saints Brewing Company (http://bit.ly/K1lPu0).

Each of those beers drank and each of those places visited really are
the most superficial parts of those experiences. The connections made, renewed, or ended
during those times are the essence of what brings meaning to the craft beer
experience.

The people we are meeting as we work through our Kickstarter
campaign (http://kck.st/LmbeaM) have been some of the most
inspiring, caring, intelligent, funny, and genuine people we have ever
met. Our beer has been the
beginning of some great friendships and partnerships. And, with success or
failure of our brewery, those will last.

As social animals, we crave the sharing of an experience more than
the experience itself.

Ever been drinking a great beer by your lonesome,
and thought “I wish so-and-so was here to try this.”? I have. It’s a little like riding a roller coaster
by yourself. It may be
exhilarating, but it’s lonely. Our
hearts and minds race when we run into someone who knows what we’ve experienced
or are experiencing. We can learn a
lot from those around us.

Craft beer is meant to be a social experience. Craft beer is a conversational
lubricant. When you sit at the pub,
don’t be afraid to engage the stranger to your right or left. Ready to imbibe that beer you’ve been
cellaring for three years? Call
someone to join you. S/he may be the
key to something deep within your heart or psyche. Or, at least they’ll be one less person
to explain the beer’s amazingness (or awfulness) to the next day.

Recognize the exotic nature of your local community.

While living in Dublin through a graduate program, at
first, I walked around the city awestruck – mostly at the fact I was in
Dublin. I wandered streets, some
lighted and some not, finding everything exotic – i.e., “I’ve never had
Irish milk! Oh my!” Day in and day out, I found something
new to appreciate. I drank only
Guinness.

Then, one day it happened. I found myself in front of the
television, watching a rerun of an American show I had already seen. Maybe I was yearning for home; but it caused
an epiphany.

Regardless of where we are, at some point it all
becomes mundane and ‘meh’. At that
point I made a conscious decision to make wherever I was, for however long I
was there, for whatever reason an exotic experience. It takes a little work, an open mind,
and willingness to truly accept your current place in the Big Picture to do
this.

Craft beer again offers us this chance. With each local brewery of varying sizes
and niches a beer drinker should rarely find him/herself struggling for that
exotic experience. Make the connection
with the bartender or actual brewer, talk with the locals and regulars (you can
tell who they are), observe the people and place. Local breweries and brewpubs can be an
amazing link to the parts of the community that are unfound as of yet. You’ll soon find yourself sitting in a
jungle with new species of animals sitting all around you. Hell, you’ll be a new species yourself
to some of the other explorers.
Let’s hope they don’t plan to mount you on their trophy wall.

The growth of the craft beer world is sometimes
scary; hoping it doesn’t implode again like the mid-90s. Hoping the return to a buy local mentality is real
and not some manufactured mantra of the moment. Because, buying local isn’t just about a financial
reinvestment into communities – it’s a human reinvestment into the one
thing that makes everything spectacular. Human connection, awareness, and compassion along
with great beer and great people can help those great communities revive,
resonate, and revel in renaissance.

Too young to die? Yep.

I still haven’t met my neighbor across the street. It’s about time to split a sixer with him (or her).